Chronicles of Boone County

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Adena: Moundbuilders History

Long before Boone County, Kentucky was the bustling county that we know it as today, Native Americans roamed this area, farmed along the Ohio River, and all throughout the midwest. The Native Americans lived in the Ohio River Valley between 2500 and 1800 years ago during the Woodland period. The first primary Native American culture in the Boone County was the Adena Culture also known as Moundbuilders. They were called this for the thousands of burial mounds that they built around the area which played an enormous role in their social, economic, and religious lives. The Adena peoples were mobile hunter-gatherers so they did not settle in one place for long periods of time, contrary to the mounds where they buried their loved ones and their valuable belongings.